Signal 1: Dockless bike share in New York City

The city’s dockless bike share pilot program officially launched in July of this year. The initial purpose of this program was to mitigate traffic problems, but things went contrary to our wishes. The disrespectful behavior of users caused the rate of bicycle damage and theft to rise rapidly, and made the city even more cluttered.

Throwing bikes randomly on the street or leaving them in piles on the sidewalk will not alleviate city traffic, but will only make the sidewalk more severely crowded. With these problems come unexpected costs, to fix the damaged bikes and to produce new bikes. Eventually, cities may even suspend the service from adding any new bikes, as they worry the street will get even more cluttered with new in-service bikes and stolen bikes.

If operators do not address these issues, then they will soon face a serious financial burden: they will not have sufficient funds to attract riders through free riders and cover the costs of replacing stolen and damage bikes.

The connection between bike and rider should made stronger. Operator should preauthorize the use of credit cards or raise the deposit to an amount that can fulfill the cost of producing a new bike.

Source:

-Plitt, Amy (2018, July 31st) Curbed New York Article: New York’s new dockless bike share, explained. Retrieved from: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/7/27/17617782/bike-share-new-york-dockless-facts-information